Federal officials say there's no hazard from high radiation levels detected on an empty cylinder that once contained uranium hexafluoride when the items were delivered Wednesday to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman said the cylinder was shipped back to the Converdyne/Honeywell Metropolis Works Plant.

But, a whistleblower and former plant employee, Gary Vander Boegh, and an official with the union representing plant employees, said the high readings were a ``serious'' problem.

Union official Jim Key told the Louisville Courier-Journal that one of the workers who handled a cylinder volunteered to be monitored for any possible internal exposure to radiation.